Frequency of menopausal symptoms and their impact on the quality of life of women: a hospital based survey.

OBJECTIVES To asses the menopause related symptoms and to determine the impact of these symptoms on the quality of life of menopausal women. METHODS It was a cross sectional hospital based survey conducted at the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Isra University Hyderabad Sindh Pakistan from November 2007 to August 2008. Two hundred two women of age 40-60 years, who presented in out patient department were included. Women with induced menopause, receiving hormonal treatment, having medical problems like thyroid disorders, diabetes mellitus and hypertension and those who refused to participate were not included. Menopause specific quality of life questionnaire (MENQOL) was used to assess the frequency and severity of symptoms. Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson Co-efficient of correlation was used for statistical analysis. P value < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS Mean age of women was 52.17 +/- 6.019 years. Mean length of time since menopause was 8.39 +/- 6.0 years. Most prevalent symptom within study subjects was body ache 165 (81.7%). Frequencies of some classical symptoms were 134 (66.3%) reported "hot flushes", 139 (68.8%) and 134 (66.3%) reported "lack of energy" and decrease in "physical strengths" respectively. The less frequently reported symptom was increase in facial hair 20 (9.9%). Scores of Physical domain were significantly more in postmenopausal (PM) group P < 0.002 while the scores of psychological domain were significantly high in menopause transition (MT) group P < 0.003. CONCLUSION Menopause related symptoms had negative affect on the quality of life of postmenopausal women.